Stop Cash Shrink

“The withdrawal of the Cole memo really couldn’t have come at a worse time, because now is the time that the types of banks and credit unions that are willing to take on more risk would have been entering the market,” said Robert McVay, a Seattle-based cannabis law attorney, in an interview with CNBC.

In the weeks since Sessions’s announcement, it appears McVay’s opinion may have been premature, as the FinCEN guidance is still in effect. But plenty damage has still been done.

“Some have stopped taking on new accounts,” added Dustin Eide, the CEO and founder of CanPay, a mobile-payments app that’s done business with marijuana operations, and made news in September 2017 by landing a deal to handle official marijuana business in Hawaii—but with the cover of the FinCEN memo.

Since then, “we do know of one institution that was getting ready to launch cannabis banking program that has decided to suspend their launch indefinitely,” he told CNBC.